Thursday workout:
Rest day! (Usually Friday, but since the 10 miler is Saturday I’ll be doing a couple of miles on Friday to loosen up for Saturday:).
———————————————————–

Hello there, friends! Long time no see! I am so sorry for disappearing for a couple of days, but this week I turned into the STRESS MONSTER, who was incapable of doing anything except eat, sleep, and write papers.

While it may appear from this blog that my life is nothing but eating, training, blogging, and more eating, I do in fact go to grad school. I just don’t usually have much to say bout the boring (ie, school) parts of my life.

But last week I found out I had TWO papers assigned at the last minute–both due on Monday, and I am going to be gone Friday night and all day Saturday for the race. Cue stressed-to-the-max Erin.

So, this week school completely took over my life. School turned my office/guest bedroom from this:

Into this:

Please observe the empty Cheez-its bag, empty plate from eating birthday cake, and empty chili bowl. I am the worst stress eater! For some reason my body has decided that the only way it can cope with stress is to consume a whole box of Cheez-its in two days and half a birthday cake. Plus I swear sugar makes my brain function faster.

At least Oscar was there to help me write my paper. He looks a lot less stressed than I am. Oh, to be a cat.

Running usually helps cope with my stress, but this week is recovery week so I didn’t have too many miles to put in. Plus I couldn’t afford much more time away from the computer. So, eat I did. And sleep a lot I did not. The race tomorrow should be interesting:/.

With all the time spent writing papers I did not have time to try my pumpkin gnocchi recipe that I wanted to try:(. Hopefully I will next week!

I did however try a recipe my friend sent me that she saw in O magazine for a “power breakfast” (my name, not Oprah’s. Oprah called it “Immunity Boosting Muesli,” but it was not very muesli-like, and I did not have blueberries, which I feel like are a crucial part of the immunity boosting aspect, so I am going with “power breakfast”:).

The consistency was a bit odd (more ‘congealed’ than I expected), but it tasted yummy and is packed with good stuff! I will definitely eat this again! Plus it might be a good thing to pack the night before and take to my early days at school (and hopefully it would get less comments than the cocoa and banana oatmeal:/).

Power breakfast:
(Serves 2, or one hungry triathlete/runner like myself)
NOTE: recipe calls for preparation the night before.

Calories (because the recipe published them): 242 per serving
—————————————

Are you a stress eater? If so do you have any good tricks to stop yourself?
-I have always been a horrible stress eater:(. I can sometimes restrain myself but not usually on weeks like this week. I’ve tried some of the “tricks” you read about in magazines, but they don’t really work that well for me.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
-It’s a toss-up between a house cat or a horse (in a well taken-care-of home, of course). I am always jealous that my cat gets to just sleep allllll day. But when I was little I always thought it would be fun to be a horse–then I could actually run around and get outside, too!

Is it weird that I have thought this much about what kind of animal I would be? I feel like that was normal as a child…but maybe I am wrong…

7 Responses to Stress Monster

I hate that kind of stress! I used to be a stress eater, but now when I get stressed I try to write lists. to the extreme. and then cross things off. even if it is the tiniest thing, it makes me feel like i AM getting somewhere. Good luck with the papers and your race! You’ll do awesome 🙂

Awwww….I know STRESS…we have been very close since the day I was born!! lol… Take a deep, DEEP breath & always stay mindful that you are wonderful & a very responsible person. You WILL get everything done & it WILL be GREAT!!! Not always easy to do (this I know from experience) but keep breathing. I usually go to the cookies or cakes (some type of pastry) when I’m stressed. Probably why I gained 72 lbs when I went back to school…yuck.
If I had to choose what kind of animal I would be, it would definitely be a cat. Sometimes, they can seem a bit nervous but mostly they are just calm & cool & know how to RELAX…Hang in there & good luck with your papers & the race.